Batirov holds Bahrain last hope at Asian Indoor Games

Ashgabat, Sep. 24 (BNA): Wrestler Adam Batirov holds Bahrain’s final hope of a medal at the ongoing Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in Ashgabat, in Turkmenistan, where he will fight for a third medal at the games on Monday. Batirov has set his sight on the gold medal of the Men’s Freestyle -70kg weight category, which gets underway at 9am (Bahrain time). Coached by Mahmud Magomedov, who is a former European wrestling champion, the 32-year-old Bahraini will be competing for his country’s third medal at the games. Ali Munfaredi and Ahmed Shebeeb gave Bahrain some glory after winning the jiu jitsu men’s under-77kg gold and bronze, respectively on September 18. Batirov hopes to follow suit today when he looks to improve on his last major appearance at the Rio 2016 Olympics in the FS 65kg category, where he lost in the Round of 16 to Ikhtiyor Navruzov of Uzbekistan. In his final training session yesterday, Batirov met Bahrain Royal Equestrian and Endurance Federation president and Bahrain chef de mission Shaikh Faisal bin Rashid Al Khalifa, Bahrain Olympic Committee general secretary and chef de mission deputy Abdulrahman Askar and other delegation officials. Shaikh Faisal greeted the Bahraini wrestler and had discussions on latter’s programme in the under-70kg weight category, and wished him best of luck at the championship. Batirov, who created a name for himself in the world of martial arts, progressed into Rio Olympics last year after dominating the World Olympic Games qualifying tournament held in Mongolia. His first major achievement for Bahrain was in 2016 when he took the 70kg weight category gold medal at the Asian Wrestling Championships in Bangkok, Thailand.